Ride the frustration away, dump it, call me back, trim time

Yesterday I was in a sour mood all day for obvious reasons.  I had thrown my EUC in the trunk of the Prius with the intent of riding it after work at the Naples Greenway.  Well I decided to also take the wheel out at lunch as well, riding the Msuper just felt like it would be a better mood elevator than the gym.  I rode over 8 miles over my lunch hour and enjoyed every minute of it.  The ride after work at the Greenway was awesome with cool temperatures and beautiful skies.  It’s hard to explain what riding an EUC feels like to someone that has never rode one.  It’s a different experience from riding a bike, perhaps because it allows you to focus more on your surroundings and less on the effort required to push you through the surroundings.  In total I put between 16-17 miles on the wheel during the day and still had over half of the battery charge remaining, amazing.

So for some reason I have never in my lifetime educated myself as to why the electoral college system exists.  This year was the second time in my lifetime where the presidential candidate that won the popular vote did not win the electoral vote.  I would think when it happened back in 2000 I would have looked into the college but I cared less about most things back then.

So anyway, one of my friends posted an article explaining the origin of the electoral college and why it is basically ridiculous it is still in use today, some 200+ years later.  Believe it or not the electoral college was enacted to account for slavery.  Yes in 2016 we are still using a system that was made so slave owners could get additional voting power for the slaves they owned.  Even though the slaves themselves could not vote, each one counted as 2/5 of a vote that would be attributed to the slave owner, allowing them to gain voting influence based on the size of their slavery endeavors.  I am amazed and disgusted that a system that has such a dark origin is still in use.

There is absolutely no reason for it at this point in time and evidently there is some movement to do away with it.  A number of states have agreed to the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact which would ensure that whatever candidate wins the popular vote is the winner, regardless of electoral college shenanigans.  Feel free to read up on it here.  It makes no sense that every other elected office is a reflection of the popular vote yet the most influential position in government is not.

Sure, Trump enthusiasts will see this point as simply sour grapes which is understandable but it doesn’t change the fundamentals.  Whomever gets the most votes should win, period, no matter what party that benefits.  The same simple logic should apply to the presidential primaries.  It was absolutely maddening watching the super delegate stacked deck system in the democratic primaries, making it nearly impossible for Bernie to win, despite Trump-like grass root support with MASSIVE numbers everywhere he went.  If you get more votes than everyone else you win, keep it simple, stupid.

So with the election fun going on I neglected to mention my Tacoma is back at the dealer.  Cindy took it there Tuesday after the ABS warning light came on once again along with odd brake pedal feel, not something to screw around with.  The dealer gave Cindy a loaner Corolla to use.  The truck was there all Tuesday afternoon so I called Wednesday morning between 9 and 10, wanting to get an update on what they found.  I got my “service advisors” voice mail so I politely asked him to give me a call back to fill me in.

Well around 2pm I still heard nothing so I called again, annoyed that the guy couldn’t take 60 seconds to give me a call, even if nothing was determined yet.  This time I got a person on the phone.  I said I called in the morning and asked for a call back and got none.  The woman checked in the computer about the status of the truck and could only tell me it was still being worked on.  She said she would again tell my service advisor to call me back.

So now it is 4pm and the guy has not called me.  WTF.  So I call back once more with more anger in my voice.  I explain that twice I have called asking for an update and have been ignored.  I wanted to know what was going on with the truck.  Just because I have a loaner doesn’t mean I don’t want my truck back asap.  I get another woman that says my service advisor is not at his desk.  I tell her that I will be at the office until 4:30 and I need the guy to call me back before I leave.  She assures me she will get the message to him and she is sure he will call me back.  Well of course you know the next part, he didn’t call.

I didn’t realize that Cindy had also sent the guy a text message around the same time as my last call.  She had his cell from our first trip to the dealer.  The info in the text was a bit confusing but the last thing was the guy was meeting with the shop foreman at 10 am today about it.  Huh?  You have to schedule a time with the garage to find out what the fck is going on with a vehicle?  So anyway, I am now ready for a not so friendly exchange when I call the dealer later in the morning to sort through exactly what the hell they have been doing with my truck for the last 48 hours.  I need the truck back today in order to complete the tree trimming project that is on the books for tomorrow.  How I get to that point is probably going to be aggravating for sure.

So anyway, the big monster on my three day weekend is doing the annual tree trimming project where we trim 25+ trees all in one day.  It is one of the more miserable tasks I endure each year.  The only positive is the 32 foot ladder I plan to rent should at least make some of the high tree trimming less dangerous.  After the task is done the rest of the weekend should hopefully be downhill and more enjoyable.  Trimming the trees is the precursor to putting up the Christmas lights in a couple weeks so I will look at that as the light at the end of the tunnel, even though hanging the lights is a pain in the ass as well.

Cindy spotted the coyote yesterday morning pacing the back fence line, surely considering jumping the fence to pick off another one of our birds.  Cindy ran at the animal screaming bloody murder which was enough to send it running the other direction.  It was a clear warning that we need to pick up our awareness of what is lurking outside the confine of the back yard.